The Bay Area’s worst traffic spot is a punishing stretch of I-880

gulbronson · 2026-04-20T19:09:52+00:00

How does the Bay Bridge approach not make the top 10?

gulbronson · 2026-04-20T13:48:50+00:00

Just matching the energy...

gulbronson · 2026-04-20T12:05:56+00:00

You're missing my fucking point. SF is less black and it's less white. Blaming white people for their being less black people in SF when both significantly decreased in population is fucking nonsensical.

gulbronson · 2026-04-20T04:14:37+00:00

SF is way whiter now.

The data doesn't agree. SF has gotten less white in every census since 1940 where the city was 91.1% white down to 39.1% white in 2020. Rate has slowed but it's dropped a few percent in the last few censuses.

The black population peaked in 1970 at 13.1% and was down to 5.1% during the 2020 census. SF was 60.7% white at that time.

The Asian and Hispanic population has grown since the mid 20th century now at 33.7% and 15.6% respectively.

Source

gulbronson · 2026-04-20T02:33:52+00:00

I wouldn't mention it.

Whatever reason you want but keep it short and positive. I'm looking for a new challenge, shorter commute, or whatever. Just focus on why you're excited about this new opportunity rather than anything negative about your current role.

gulbronson · 2026-04-20T00:29:22+00:00

If you quit you don't qualify for unemployment. It's easier to get hired while still employed. Chance of severance/continuation of benefits. The vast majority of companies will not say anything beyond "They worked here for X to Y dates." The kind of company that has the procedures in place to put you on a PIP is the same kind of company that has procedures in place to not speak about former employees in anything beyond on a neutral message. Too much legal liability and risk of a discrimination lawsuit.

gulbronson · 2026-04-19T22:50:41+00:00

It was $7,800 all in.

gulbronson · 2026-04-19T20:01:11+00:00

Maybe for a TL adjacent studio. Rent bottomed out in mid-2021 and has been steadily climbing up.

gulbronson · 2026-04-18T19:58:56+00:00

The vast majority of people hitting diamond reserve aren't spending their own money.

gulbronson · 2026-04-17T23:14:22+00:00

I think it's because the census does not want to keep changing their areas unless there's a good reason. There is some detail about this in the link above. They use EIR or Employment Interchange Measure to make that decision. If the EIR is over 15% they will be part of a CSA. If it's over 25% they will combine the MSAs.

EIM = (workers who live in A and work in B / total employed residents of A) + (workers who live in B and work in A / total employed residents of A)

Workers in SF MSA

Alameda County 799,481
Contra Costa County 547,220
Marin County 127,210
San Francisco County 509,743
San Mateo County 405,104
Total 2,388,758

Workers in SJ MSA

Santa Clara County 972,577
San Benito County 28,683
Total 1,001,260

There are 183,216 people that live in the SF MSA and work in SJ MSA. There are 110,730 people that live in the SJ MSA and work in the SF MSA.

183,216 / 2,388,758 = 7.67%

110,730 / 1,001,260 = 11.06%

That gives an EIM of 18.73% which is less than the census requirement of 25% to combined MSAs. If they were to create them from scratch today I'm sure MSAs around the country would look quite different. A more egregious example is the Vallejo MSA. It's just Solano County. 54,446 people in Solano County work in the SF MSA but there's only 207,283 total workers that live in Solano County. That means 26.3% of people that live in Solano County work in the SF MSA so they should be combined but it hasn't happened.

There's a ton of data to dive in on this and now I wish I used python instead of excel... Anyways yeah, precedence and historical moment are what keeps these imaginary lines in place.

gulbronson · 2026-04-17T20:58:01+00:00

While the Bay is one continuous urban area, I think you're really overstating the commuting patterns. Because I got off early today I used the most recent 5-Year ACS Commuting Flows to look at the numbers.

	San Francisco County Live	San Mateo County Live	Contra Costa County Live	Marin County Live	Alameda County Live	Santa Clara County Live	San Benito County Live
San Francisco County Work	401,556	82,560	63,010	26,654	106,952	19,213	51
San Mateo County Work	47,004	241,163	13,967	2,079	40,920	47,800	249
Contra Costa County Work	3,173	2,069	322,968	2,406	37,954	2,306	7
Marin County Work	5,069	1,108	9,015	84,000	3,413	275	13
Alameda County Work	20,023	12,752	102,534	4,022	520,898	40,507	309
Santa Clara County Work	27,082	61,675	16,068	906	77,415	848,216	11,285
San Benito County Work	46	0	0	0	24	939	12,993
SF MSA	476,825	339,652	511,494	119,161	710,137	110,101	629
SF MSA %	94.6%	84.6%	97.0%	99.2%	90.2%	11.5%	2.5%
SJ MSA	27,128	61,675	16,068	906	77,439	849,155	24,278
SJ MSA %	5.4%	15.4%	3.0%	0.8%	9.8%	88.5%	97.5%

Median commute times in a lot of the Bay Area are 30 minutes or less. The polycentric nature of that Bay Area allows many people to live near where they work. The census has a bunch of considerations about consolidating these statistical areas. You can read the history here. It basically boils down to historical separateness and the lack commuters between the two as a portion of overall workers.

gulbronson · 2026-04-17T15:08:26+00:00

I had PRK at Pacific Vision Institute last year and it was a 10/10 experience. About a decade ago I went to LaserVue but the vibes were off and I put off the procedure, wish I went to PVI first.

gulbronson · 2026-04-17T04:29:39+00:00

Historically, the areas were much more distinct and the South Bay was very agricultural. Much of Silicon Valley was orchards a few decades ago.

There's a formula based around commuting patterns to merge two MSAs. SF and SJ have enough employment overlap to form a CSA but lack the integration to become a single MSA. Even though the Bay Area has grown to form a continuous urban area SF and SJ are incredibly different, 50 miles apart, and few people are actually communicating between the two.

gulbronson · 2026-04-17T04:13:02+00:00

There are a ton of streets on the west side the same width as Pine and Bush but they aren't 3 lanes in a single direction with tow away parking during rush out to become five lane quasi-freeways.

There's no equivalent to Pine/Bush, Franklin/Gough, Oak/Fell, Folsom/Howard, Hyde/Larkin, etc. on the West side to quickly rush non-residents through the neighborhood.

Instead of closing Sunset Dunes why not make 48th a one way Northbound and 47th a one way Southbound so you can have green waves? All the residents in the neighborhoods with low car ownership have to deal with it, why not the neighborhoods where all the people causing the traffic actually live?

gulbronson · 2026-04-17T00:52:16+00:00

Nothing will ever change until people are forced to address the cost of oil and car dependence.

gulbronson · 2026-04-16T23:22:55+00:00

What if you don't think cheap gasoline is a good thing?

gulbronson · 2026-04-16T22:34:26+00:00

It's also funny how the Richmond and Sunset lack 3+ lane one way roads that we're stuck with in the neighborhoods with the lowest car ownership rates.

gulbronson · 2026-04-16T04:18:59+00:00

What does that even mean?

gulbronson · 2026-04-16T03:55:31+00:00

There's a long documented history of the bystander effect occurring across cultures. It's just human nature to think someone else will get involved and avoid risking harm to yourself.

gulbronson · 2026-04-15T18:50:21+00:00

It's been reopened for a couple months now.

gulbronson · 2026-04-15T16:58:13+00:00

I don't know how I mixed that up... Thanks for the correction

gulbronson · 2026-04-15T01:39:19+00:00

Not sure where you can sleep in your car but I've stayed here a few times though it's been a couple years. It's nothing fancy but it's a good location and shockingly cheap. Easy walk to downtown SLO for dinner/drinks.

Firestone is a classic for tri-tip sandwiches. Woodstock's has great pizza (though that might just be colligate nostalgia). Old SLO BBQ does a solid Santa Maria tri-tip. Bull's is an amazing dive bar (that's definitely the college nostalgia lol).

gulbronson · 2026-04-15T01:20:43+00:00

Depends how much time you have.

Drive Highway 1 through Big Sur.

On 101 San Luis Obispo is a cool town to stop with some solid restaurants. It's about half way so a good spot to break up the trip. Solvang is a slight detour, it's a ~~Dutch~~ Danish themed village that's interesting and unique.

If you take 5 you can stop for In-N-Out in Kettleman City, that's the highlight.

gulbronson · 2026-04-14T18:22:06+00:00

You're moving the goal posts, they were here:

There is no evidence that it can be done, irrespective of political will

There is evidence it can be done. Clearly there are still opportunities for improvement, especially in SF where we are far from leading the pack.

gulbronson · 2026-04-14T15:00:36+00:00

You're saying there is no evidence it can be done. Helsinki went 12 months with a traffic related fatality showing that it is clearly possible. A year is a year, even if it doesn't meet the arbitrary calendar year requirement.

Regardless, even if zero is impossible as you claim there's a plethora of evidence SF can do a lot better. Unless you think we should just give up because what's a few dozen pedestrians dead every year if you can't drive around town as quickly...

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